Sunday, November 20, 2011

Cold weather wimp out, and getting sucked into Twitter

Well, the week of doing whatever after my race is up, and yesterday I wanted to run.  The problem was it was cold outside:  about -18c (0f), but with windchill, it was closer to -25c (-13f).

Now here's the thing, I can run in the cold.  I have run in the cold.  In fact, I generally consider about -30c (-22f) to be my temperature cut off.

I didn't feel like running in the cold.  I justified it by bringing into the equation that I have a cold.  I also have asthma.  Between cold weather, asthma, and illness, I can deal with two of them at a time.  All three together and it's more of a challenge, even though my asthma is well managed now.

So, I headed to the track and ran 8km (5mi) there.  Last winter, I ran there a handful of times, and found it a real challenge to keep going in circles.  This time, I didn't find it too bad.  I brought my ipod (which I rarely use outside) and pumped up the volume.  And, I ran.  One thing that helped is some advice from my swim/spin coach to "ovalize" the corners.  Basically, our track has very square corners, but if you cut across the lanes, you can make them much less abrupt, and therefore easier on the knees.  There were only three other people on the track, so that wasn't hard to do.  It would certainly be tougher when the track is busy.

In other news, I've signed up for twitter.  I resisted for a long time.  But, then again, when it seemed like everyone else was setting up blogs, I held off on that too, but eventually got hooked.

I'm still figuring it out, but I kind of feel like the new kid at school.  Having said that, it does look like half the blog world is on there!  If you want to follow me, I signed up as @DebTris.  Pretty easy to find if you know my blog.  :)

Do you have a cold weather temperature cut off?  What is it?  Are you on twitter?  Any tips for this newbie?


Yesterday's HBBC points: 6  (5 mile run + fruit/veggie point)

7 comments:

  1. No twitter for me. I'm like an Ent. Anything worth saying is probably going to take more than 140 characters. I don't have a temperature cutoff, exactly. It depends on the temperature and wind, but once it's down around -35 or 40 I say enough. I remember reading about a woman that slipped on some ice and banged her head on her car as she went down. They suspect it wasn't that serious an injury, but she froze to death in her driveway before she woke up again. I'm more likely to pass on a run because the footing is treacherous.

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  2. I'm a new runner, so I haven't found my cut-off yet. My first run was in 25F temps, and that didn't stop me. We'll see what happens if I approach negative numbers, though. That might be enough to get me on the treadmill -- especially since I worry about ICE, like Keith mentioned.

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  3. ack, now i feel super guilty/wimpy...it was minus 4, which was cold for victoria so hubs and i decided to take turns on the treadmill this morning. i will preface it that it would have been dark when we started and it looked icy! yesterday i slipped on some frost and went ass over teakettle...when i got up I started to laugh, and then looked up and my neighbour saw the whole thing. oh the humanity.

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  4. oh, and i just got sucked into twitter too...add that onto my blog, facebook and pinterest addiction!

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  5. Still figuring out what my cutoff for temps is. I know it is sooner (higher) for biking than walking/running. I need to invest in some winter weight gear so that I can drop my temp threshold.

    I've put off the twitter thing for a long time. I see how it kills the blogs. LOL

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  6. It was seriously cold out this weekend and it's only going to get worse! No running for me, although today was much nicer with the sun shining.

    Twitter is addicting! :)

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  7. Everyone is on Twitter now!! I can see myself getting sucked in but I don't know if I want yet another form of social media to overtake my life!!

    Hmmm if I am training for something and there is a scheduled group run, there isn't a temperature I won't run in. If it's a solo run, I might bail but that's also because of the dark and the usually crappy snowcovered sidewalks. With the availability of the treadmill in my basement, I have more options.

    Right now, unless someone walks with me, I would rather do an indoor workout than brave this nasty cold. Again I have the treadmill and other workout DVDs to keep me active so I don't feel the need to endure the cold. Plus you don't stay warm the same way walking as you do running.

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